Kansas Collection

Flower bank
Memorial Day


     Memorial Day, traditionally observed on May 30th but now on the last Monday in May, began as a recognition of the men who died to preserve the Union during the Civil War. As time went on, this holiday broadened to include all soldiers who gave their lives for our country, and then all those we love who have passed on – a quiet day of reflection and of tribute to the dear ones we have lost. Across the United States, families visit cemeteries and decorate the graves of loved ones with flowers. In Arlington National Cemetery, a flag is placed at each of the thousands of graves there by a member of an Army regiment assigned this special duty.

     At KanColl, we pay our respects to the people, remembered in our pages, who have died but left us a legacy of life, learning, and freedom. We honor people like E. C. D. Lines – Eddie Lines – who died in the service of his country during the Civil War ... Elijah Doughty, infantryman in the West in the 1800s, and Ben Cruzan, bugler in Europe in World War I ... and Captain, later Brigadier-General Randolph Barnes Marcy, who devoted his life to military service and the West in the last half of the nineteenth century. We remember family such as Harold C. Place, editor of the Kansas State Chamber of Commerce magazine, Progress in Kansas and his wife Irma ... Margaret Stafford Young, a woman who taught her family some of the most important things in life ... and Gordon McLin, Kansan through and through. We remember all the voices who echo in KanColl's pages, sharing their lives, their joys and sorrows, and the lessons they learned about life and service. They left a record for us, and on this day, we honor them, and thank them for the legacy they left us, not only on paper, but in the lives of those they touched.

Here is a list of some of those voices in KanColl:


tiny red poppy Josiah Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies
tiny red poppy Frank S. Edwards, A Campaign in New Mexico With Col. Doniphan
tiny red poppy Sara Robinson, Kansas: Its Interior and Exterior Life
tiny red poppy Hannah Anderson Ropes, Six Months in Kansas
tiny red poppy John W. Geary, Governor Geary's Administration in Kansas (by John H. Gihon, M.D.)
tiny red poppy Capt. Randolph Barnes Marcy, The Prairie Traveler: A Hand-book for Overland Expeditions
tiny red poppy Miriam Davis Colt, Went to Kansas
tiny red poppy Richard Cordley, A History of Lawrence, Kansas, The Lawrence Massacre and Pioneer Days in Kansas
tiny red poppy Joseph G. McCoy, Cattle Trade of the West and Southwest
tiny red poppy William G. Cutler, The Andreas History of the State of Kansas and The Andreas History of the State of Nebraska
tiny red poppy Percy G. Ebbutt, Emigrant Life in Kansas
tiny red poppy John N. Reynolds, Twin Hells
tiny red poppy William M. Thayer, Extract from Marvels of the New West
tiny red poppy William Allen White, The Real Issue, What's the Matter with Kansas? and The Martial Adventures of Henry and Me
tiny red poppy Eugene Ware, Some of the Rhymes of Ironquill
tiny red poppy Charles M. Sheldon, In His Steps and Howard Chase, Red Hill
tiny red poppy William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, Last of the Great Scouts (by Helen Wetmore Cody)
tiny red poppy Lyman Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
tiny red poppy F. F. Crevecoeur, Old Settlers' Tales
tiny red poppy Carrie De Voe, Legends of the Kaw
tiny red poppy Leverett Wilson Spring, KANSAS: The Prelude to the War for the Union
tiny red poppy Ed. Blair, The History of Johnson County, Kansas
tiny red poppy A. M. Harvey, Tales and Trails of Wakarusa
tiny red poppy Melissa Genett Anderson, The Story of a Kansas Pioneer
tiny red poppy Rosie Clem Maxton, The Last One
tiny red poppy James C. Malin, The Grassland of North America and A Sampler
tiny red poppy Roscoe Fleming, "Kansas, 'Ad Astra Per Aspera'"
tiny red poppy James Whitcomb Riley, "A Tale of the Airly Days"
tiny red poppy Harold C. and Irma Place, "Progress in Kansas", the 1930s Kansas State Chamber of Commerce magazine
tiny red poppy Homer White
tiny red poppy Marie Boling Cornelius (by Bus Cornelius)
tiny red poppy Benjamin Edgar Cruzan, A Soldier's Diary and Views of War
tiny red poppy Elijah Nelson Doughty, Civil War Diary of Travels
tiny red poppy William Anderson Thornton, Diary: Military Expedition to New Mexico
tiny red poppy Alonzo and Jacob Ragle, The Ragle Letters
tiny red poppy Thomas Wells, Letters of a Kansas Pioneer, 1855-1860
tiny red poppy Edwin Tucker, Diary
tiny red poppy Mary Jones, Letter
tiny red poppy William Smith, Letter
tiny red poppy Clay and Kate Bowen, Prairie Homestead:
tiny red poppy Richard Smith, Letter to Edward Beedles
tiny red poppy Elizabeth Totten, Life on the Plains
tiny red poppy Winton Slagle Sipe, Memories of a Kansas Farm Boy
tiny red poppy Watson Stewart, Personal Memoirs
tiny red poppy Nancy Wisner, Recollections of Pioneer Life
tiny red poppy E. T. McFarland, Memories of Kansas Settlement
tiny red poppy Robert Condon Stone, Reminiscences
tiny red poppy Mary Beeson, Autobiography
tiny red poppy William Darnell, Reminiscences (with George Root)
tiny red poppy Bennett and Millie Scribner, and William Tharp, How WILLIAM met MILLIE (by Tommy Graham)
tiny red poppy Dolly Belt, "Nick Names of Lane, Kansas"
tiny red poppy Benjamin Franklin Smith, Memories of Lincoln and Douglas
tiny red poppy U. S. Grant Sanders, Frank Bursinger
tiny red poppy Fred Wishart, The Zulu
tiny red poppy Sarah Edna Eutsler Kennedy, "Autobiography"
tiny red poppy Elizabeth Garen, "Scrap Book"
tiny red poppy C. L. Edson, "The Old Windmill" by C.L. Edson
tiny red poppy Sherman Peter Young, "The Factual History of Kansas"
tiny red poppy "Tales of the Smokey Hills: Brownie, a Hobo" (by Jim Sumner)
tiny red poppy "J. C. Returns Home" and "J. C. Redfield: Sheriff" (by Ray Downing)
tiny red poppy Honas Henning and Amelia Beckman, A Pretty Church Wedding contributed by John Maier
tiny red poppy Josephine Winifred Hammond Crawford, Josie's Ledger
tiny red poppy John Newton, Amazing Grace
tiny red poppy William Jennings Bryan, The Cross of Gold Speech
tiny red poppy Dr. R. C. McClymonds, Excerpt from Physician's Pocket Account Book
tiny red poppy Ruth Considine, Aunt Ruth's Pioneer Woman (by Mary Ann Sachse Brown)
tiny red poppy Howard Raynesford, The Raynesford Papers -- Notes on Kansas Trails and the Butterfield Overland Despatch
tiny red poppy Margaret Young Stafford, A Life of Strength (by James E. Stafford)
tiny red poppy Gordon McLin, Kansan. (adapted from Rev. Paul B. Mitchell's remarks)
tiny red poppy McKinley Burnett, Fired by a Dream
tiny red poppy Nellie Cronk, The Remarkable Young Woman from Turkey Creek (by Gail Martin)
tiny red poppy Mark Carlton, Who was the Wheat Dreamer? (by Michelle Stafford)
tiny red poppy Cora Pickering Cordell (by Julie Schossow)
tiny red poppy Dr. Ellis Hobson, Obituaries
tiny red poppy John Brown of Osawatomie and Daguerrotype of John Brown taken in 1847
tiny red poppy Tom Smith, Tom Smith of Abilene (by Dick Taylor)
tiny red poppy Joseph Dvorak and Francis Zvolanek, Life Altering Decisions (by Eric Taylor)
tiny red poppy Abraham Rothrock (by Barbara Hill)
tiny red poppy Florence Betz, Wheat Field, 1940
tiny red poppy Company M, at the Marion County Court House, 1916 or 1917
tiny red poppy Yates Center boys, First to Leave in World War I
tiny red poppy Freese Family Photograph Album
tiny red poppy People of Great Bend, Kansas: A Photographic Album
tiny red poppy Portrait Gallery of Eminent Kansans
tiny red poppy Well-Known Visitors of Early-Day Kansas
tiny red poppy Class of District School No. 6, Douglas County, Kansas (1897)
tiny red poppy The University of Kansas Orchestra (1904)
tiny red poppy Rick Housh's Family Photographs
tiny red poppy Old Elsmore School, Douglas County, Kansas (1917)


From the Preface to Tom Carney's book, The Way It Was:

"Her face was wrinkled from almost a century of living and on her left hand was a worn wedding ring that must have been almost as old as its owner. In her other hand she clutched a copy of the story I had written.
     "Slowly she turned her head to look at me and, after glancing again at the magazine, said in a low, soft voice, ‘Someone remembered ... someone remembered his name.'"

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